Continuous Process Improvement Capabilities

External threats, customer demands, and meeting goals drive organizations to new challenges daily. Sadly, many consultant solutions result in a flurry of new information and enthusiasm which rapidly withers when met with the first “live” obstacle. Others tend to “reuse” a solution that worked well for their business model, but doesn’t necessarily fit the needs of the new customer. While the need is great, truly effective solutions appear elusive and unattainable.

Phoenix Group relies upon client-populated teams to develop and deliver real solutions in real work environments. After an initial assessment of the project, a plan is developed to identify and quantify the goals, required representation, timelines, and achievement requirements. Teams are equipped in knowledge and skills to successfully meet their commitments to the improvement efforts. Working alongside the team members, support personnel remain knowledgeable of progress and emerging challenges, allowing a tailored solution to be developed for each team’s needs. Phoenix Group enhances the inherent skills and knowledge of the organization by providing professional, neutral assistance to the teams. Drawing from a wide range of competencies, experience and partner resources, PGV support personnel continue the tradition of delivering innovative, technical solutions that help customers meet or exceed their goals.

Please find below a summary of some primary services offered as part of PGV’s Continuous Process Improvement division:

Strategic Planning – Leaders set the vision, goals and pace of work in the organization. PGV strategic planners assist organizations in developing and articulating the vision throughout the organization. Fulfilling the need for teams to have a sense of belonging, PGV incorporates strategic planning in all support efforts to teams and projects, whether encompassing an entire enterprise or focusing on a specific process.

Organizational Change Management – New ideas must be adopted and applied by individuals, therefore, the performance standards and rewards systems must reflect the desired outcomes both in terms of the work climate and the process performance. Combining human factors with process activities requires a delicate balance of persuasion, training, knowledge transfer and commitment. Supporting the changes, Organizational Performance Metrics help individuals compare their performance against the expectations as well as provide an overall “health” assessment of the business systems. Change management is intrinsic to all process improvements, but requires dedicated effort to successfully communicate the “new way of doing business”. PGV uses various methods to assess and improve the existing cultural attitudes, create skills and knowledge inventories; and create or evaluate process performance metrics. Organizational excellence demands excellent people working in excellent systems.

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) – Reengineering is required when the existing process(es) cannot meet required performance objectives in the time allowed (either by competitive threats or a shift in leadership’s vision). Experience shows that redesigning processes is relatively simple compared to the efforts needed to change the corporate culture and institute the new processes. Certified in DoD BPR methods, PGV retains qualified Reengineering Facilitators to help develop and implement reengineering projects. Based on the strategic objectives needed and the performance demands of the new system, the BPR Facilitator works with one or more cross-functional project teams to document the existing process activities, collect factual and anecdotal data, and develops an activity based cost model. The team then designs new processes and develops strategies to implement the new process. Areas of consideration include knowledge and task transfer, organizational “norms”, transition to data-based decision-making, and organizational performance metrics.

Incremental Improvement Projects – When time permits, the project scope is narrowly defined, or a process is near its desired performance level, a review and modification may be warranted. In these instances, the existing process metrics are reviewed against a standard (set in strategic planning sessions), process documents are created, validated and or assessed, and improvement plans are created to meet or exceed the expected performance values. With the support of a project facilitator, a cross-functional project team is formed drawing on all stakeholders. Process reviews include validation of existing documents and supporting data as well as a structured knowledge leveling across the team members. With a common level of knowledge, and strong understanding of the performance data (and associated drivers) the team can identify improvement opportunities and develop means to successfully implement and achieve them.

Team Orientation Workshop – Practice has shown that the earlier expectations are set, the easier they are to become met. When initiating a new team, an Orientation Workshop helps get teams off to a strong, focused start toward their stated objectives. The workshop includes a strategic planning phase in which participants interpret the team’s mission and define the quality attributes they value in all products and services. Project planning is conducted to create and prioritize the products and services of the team, evaluate the product’s value to the customers (users, buyers, and employees) and outline the “as-is” process creating them. After defining a “perfect” product or service, the team is then guided in developing potential means of attaining or improving the products and services. Finally, an improvement plan is created for the team including an initial project timeline, interfaces, task assignments, and an outline of needed information to establish a common level of process knowledge across the team membership. Workshops normally last 2 days and are followed by the team’s first “official” meeting.

Facilitation – The role of the facilitator is to help the teams to achieve their stated goals. Working closely with the team leader, the facilitator helps plan each activity of the team. During team events, the facilitator focuses on the meeting process, leaving the team members to focus on their contribution to the meeting content. Facilitators bring a variety of tools and techniques to the meeting to assist the teams in documenting their concepts and interpreting team data including word data. PGV believes in helping teams “learning as they go” which allows teams to focus on the immediate tasks at hand, pausing only to learn tools or techniques which enhance or accelerate the team’s progress. Building off basic tools taught in orientation workshops, the facilitator normally plans training sessions as part of the pre-meeting planning sessions with the team leader.

Technographer Support Services – Someone referring to the need for meeting minutes once said: “If you don’t document it, you will repeat it!” All too often, team record-keeping is assigned to a team member (brought to the team for a technical perspective), performed by the team leader (who is also working to chair the session), or not done at all. In each of these instances, recording the content of the meeting distracts member participation. The Technographer documents the information revealed by team members either though facilitated exercises or team discussions. Meeting support products include agendas (the plan for the expenditure of the resources), meeting minutes (summary of what was discussed), and resultant action items (what must be done). Technographers rely upon a variety of software applications to complete the task including Microsoft Office applications, Visio, collaboration software, and IDEF modeling software as required. The Technographer works closely with the team leader to accurately capture the team’s concepts and may be required to initiate drafts of the concepts to be included in briefings and other team records.

Data Analyses – Technical reviews of the existing data often provides insight to the performance of the processes as well as indicators of improvement opportunities. Organizations tend to gather volumes of data supporting varying demands for information.